ose. >> we welcome your energy and enthusiasm. >> i'm done talking now. >> have a great night. money. put him in handcuffs. "the young turks." [ ♪ music ♪ ] >> eliot: good evening, i'm eliot spitzer and this is "viewpoint." it's amazing what getting re-elected can do for a politician. even the president of the united states. it was a confident and combative president obama who strode to the white house lecturn today for his first press conference since winning his second term. at the top of his agenda, a first step towards saving the country's economy were dropping off the so-called fiscal cliff which one of our guest tonight more aptly calls the austerity bomb. >> pass a law right now that would prevent any tax hike whatsoever on the first $250,000 of everybody's income. we should not hold the middle

class hostage while we debate tax cuts for the wealthy. we should at least do what we agree on, and that's to keep the middle class taxes low. >> eliot: the president also emphasized what he would not do a sending time to make a tax deal with house republicans. >> obama: what i'm not going to do is to extend bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% that we can't afford and according to economists, will have the least positive impact on our economy. >> eliot: mr. obama also waded into the scandal that saw general david petraeus step down as director of the c.i.a. he offered assurances that damage from petraeus' affair was at least so far confined to the general and his family, and offered some words of support. >> obama: i have no evidence at this point from what i've seen that classified information was disclosed that in any way would

have had a negative impact on our national security. i want to emphasize that from my perspective, at least he has provided this country an extraordinary service. we are safer because of the work that dave petraeus has done. >> eliot: and the president had nothing but praise for the quote, exemplary work of u.n. ambassador susan rice, a possible frontrunner to be the next secretary of state. republican senators john mccain and lindsey graham have called rice unthus worthy and unqualified for a promotion for her comments that an anti-muslim video triggered the benghazi attack that skilled four americans. president obama insisted the ambassador was simply making a presentation based on the available intelligence and had tough words for the senators. when they go after the u.n. ambassador apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me.

and should i choose, if i think that she would be the best person to serve america in the capacity at the state department department, then i will nominate here. >> eliot: much more on that a little later in the program. the president also reached out to the g.o.p. on immigration reform and offered an idea that he would like to see from congress. >> obama: whatever process we have needs to make sure that border security's strong, needs to deal with employers effectively, needs to provide a pathway for the undocumented here needs to deal with the dream act kids and i think that's something we can get done. >> eliot: and mr. obama commented on an issue he doesn't expect congress to take up any time soon. >> obama: i am a firm believer that climate change is real, that it is impacted by human behavior and carbon emissions as a consequence i think we have an obligation to further generations to do something about it. >> eliot: but with jobs and the economy his top priority

addressing climate change will just have to wait. joining us now the host of full full court press and author of "toxic talk." thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> eliot: the president extending an olive branch to the republicans on fiscal issues saying let's talk negotiate yet when the issues of benghazi and susan rice came up, a firmer tone don't tread on me nature to his approach to the other party. how did it strike you when you were there. >> well, i would say even on the tax cuts the president did extend the off little brunch but he showed a backbone of steel when he said, look, i'm not no way will i extend the bush tax cut for the very wealthy and no way do i think we can get there by closing loopholes alone making it very clear i think that he won't except anything

unless those tax rates go up. i'll tell what you the buzz was with the press corp, man, this guy was on fire today. he showed--he was a man who thinks--who won an election, who knows it. thinks he has a mandate and came in really ready for business. it was a much tougher firmer, stronger obama than we've seen. that's what the media was buzzing about. >> eliot: i can tell you re-election does something to one's psyche. you think about it. being elected you have a challenge ahead of you you're wondering can you do it. when you're re-electioned, it's affirmation emotionally and the president is going to stand firm, which you've been calling on your show and those who share a world-view. >> eliot: you've been calling for it too. i noticed the president said, look the american people knew what was at stake and they

voted. he made that point twice. he drove it home. >> eliot: he is framing the election precisely as a referendum on the bush tax cut saying this is what the voter was thinking about. you know who won. we are not moving to the republican party. he's saying, guys, you have a bill in front of you that will save the tax cuts for the middle income, act on it. >> i don't know how much this came across. i was in the room, i didn't watch it on television. if there was any doubt who was in charge, at the end of the news conference. he said he was taking ten questions, this was the last one. then the reporter of msnbc called out a question. he got a booing voice but the president listened very politely and said, if you think i'm going to answer your question because you shouted it out you're wrong and he walked out. >> eliot: he's asserting a new vigor and dominance. it's very good. that's exactly what we want. we have to wait and see what

happens. certainly on the fiscal issues he's being tough. the benghazi issue keeps recurring. you have john mccain saying they want to do an investigation. that the republicans knew of the counter assault it seems so petty and small but they seem stuck on it. >> two things. joe biden said this in his debate with paul ryan, and i'm glad he made this point normally when we're attacked by terrorists and we were attacked by a terrorist group on our soil in libya the country pull together behind the president and says we were attacked. we want to find out who did it, and we want to get them. instead the republicans have exploited this from day one from hour one which is really disgusting. they think this is obama's achilles' heel. they targeted susan rice of all people. susan rice, i believe as ambassador to the u.n.

she testified in front of the house intelligence group she testified at their request. she read the intelligence result of the intelligence report. they requested and what our intelligence people in libya told us, told the congress, told the white house, and now they're trying to make her responsible for what happened. i have never seen the president that fiery. it's outrageous to pick on susan rice. if you got a beef, come after me. don't go after her. >> eliot: that's two things converging. they know the underlying logic as you laid out ridiculous. it's deceptive and crazy. it's also a superior officer. he's the commander in chief and he's standing up for his subordinate and saying how dare you pick on someone in my rank. you pick on me. i'm not going to let you bully anybody. >> you know there is an end of

this story coming. that is when they find out who did it and where they are there is going to be a drone strike like we've never seen before. if there is any doubt that president obama means what he says when he says we'll find you, come after you ask osama bin laden. >> eliot: as crazy as it is, there is a linkage back to the petraeus mess where some republicans are saying that the reason that they held this over petraeus' head was to keep him from testifying about benghazi. wild and insane conspiracy theories that only some lunatic would subscribe to. >> they're jumping--some people are trying to jump there. what under cuts the petraeus link is that the white house did not--was not informed until after the election about petraeus. i think they should have been informed but they were not. neither were the leaders of congress. yet eric cantor was. why would a rogue fbi agent go to eric and then eric cantor?

if no politics was involved. >> eliot: i think you answered your own question. he's a rogue agent and not doing what he was supposed to do. >> it was a memorable moment in the east room. the president he's really strong. >> eliot: we're glad you were there. bill press host of full court press on current tv and author of "toxic cut." thanks for yanging me. i am i'm joining by brian beul beutler. andand the the austerity bomb. what are the bids over the fiscal cliff. the president firm saying we will raise taxes on the wealthy. whatever the thresh old ends up being. the republicans are mushy on this. where do you see the two parties now and how do you see a possibility of a compromise? >> i think they're still really

far part. i think a lot of republicans know they have to give the president revenue and it has to be to the tune of what he asks for. 1 trillion-dollar to $1.5 trillion. they want the money to come into the treasury without raising tax rates. to do that they would have to target credits exemptions, deductions for wealthy people. that's hard to do that without hitting middle class workers and obama is not willing to do oh there. if a taxpayer makes less than $250,000, obama is not going to do it. he says you better find a way to make that math work, accept higher rates or we'll let these expire and we'll work backwards. we'll start cutting middle class tax cuts from there on january 2nd. >> eliot: you have honed in on the nub of the controversy. the president said we're raising marginal rates and the republicans say we'll get there by closing loopholes.

there is a philosophical fundamental divide. someone has to give, and until now the republicans have not articulated which loopholes they would close and obama has suggested an intriguing idea to cap the magnitude of the deductions anyone could take which would raise from the wealthy. if you cap the amount of deductions any one person could take. does that idea have any traction as a middle ground? >> we haven't really heard. i think a lot of conservative policies wonks hope this is the sort of thing that speaker boehner will glom on to, and that obama will say look, it's not my preferred way to get 1 trillion-dollar in revenue from wealthy americans but it does get me there. it doesn't have a huge impact on

the middle class and can avoid a big fight and gives up on the rate increases. i don't think obama is going to give up on the rate increases that easily because they have been so central to his--both of his political campaigns as president even though you know at the end of the day he would end up at the same revenue baseline that he's looking for. it would appear to his base he's supporters like a pretty big cave. >> eliot: i think you're right. after the strength of his commentary and since the election where increasing rates has become the mantra, the line in the sand that people expect him to toe and stay very strict on. anything that backs off from that would require extensive preparation and conversation with his base. i'm not sure he's preparing the base for that right now. added to what we're talking about right here is economics. everyone is terrified that we're going to increase taxes and cut spending, which would expect the

economy. and the republicans are saying, they were right. we have to spend more and make sure that taxes don't go up. is canes yen? >> how we heard we need to cut the deficit like the prime congress' prime directive to cut the deficit. eric cantor, cut the deficit and we'll grow the economy. now suddenly they're confronted with actual contraction, and they are aware there is this bomb and their many job is to diffuse it or at least to limit the explosion when it goes off. they're scrambling to do that, but they're tied down to ideological core beliefs and thus unable to do that. >> eliot: what is going on right now, we're opting and rightly so for jobs over deficit reduction. if all we cared about was deficit reduction then people

would let the austerity bomb and the fiscal cliff, we would go over it. fine we're reducing the deficit, who cares. but the republicans are acknowledging that jobs manage more and that's why we have to change our policies. does that seem to be what is going on here. >> that's true across the board. but i think just as much as republicans are concerned about the jobs that would be lost if all the spending cuts and tax increases happen is that a lot of spending cuts come from their sacred cows in the defense industry, and about 1 trillion-dollar worth of new revenue would come from upper income americans. and they're very ideologically sold on the view that those are the tax rates that you need to keep as low as possible. so for those two reasons they're having a hard time--hard time making deals with democrats to avoid the rest of the austerity that would cripple the normal economy. >> eliot: in ten seconds explained to me the austerity bomb. paul krugman has give you a huge

boost. we'll explain it several times. explain what the austerity bomb is. >> it's the expiration of the bush tax cuts and the deal from last august. unlike a cliff which you fall over and you fall to your death there is no climbing back up, an austerity bomb can be diffused or mitigated, and that's sort of what congress is trying to do now. they're not slowing the drive towards the cliff. they're trying to defuse a bomb. >> eliot: i love the metaphor. brian beutler many thanks for your time tonight. from the fiscal to >>and now to my point. that is a whole bunch of bunk! the powerful my steal an election but they cannot steal democracy. [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again. time for citi price rewind. because your daughter really wants that pink castle thing. and you really don't want to

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>> eliot: as part of our ongoing series current feeding the needs

let's not forget america's stubborn weight problem which brings us to the number of the day, 35.7. that's the percentage of u.s. adults who are not just overweight but obese. the figure comes from the most recent national health and nutrition examination sur survey in 2010. with you heard plenty of medical reasons for this but there is also a political correlation. look at states where the total obesity levels were above 30% last year. aside from michigan, every single one of them voted for mitt romney last week, by a safe margin. these are solid red states like indiana, west virginia, oklahoma louisiana, and far and away the heaviest of all mississippi. if the election were just held among the fattest least healthy places in america, mitt romney would be going into the white house, with a mandate. on the other hand, look at the states with obesity levels under 25%. out of 11 states all but three went for obama.

does this mean voting republican is fattening? well probably not but we can say one thing for sure. the states that voted for obama generally seem to knowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww >> eliot: without question the most talked about moment from president obama's press conference was his full throated defense of the u.n. ambassador susan rice, who had been attacked from the right specific specifically senators john mccain and lindsay graham over comments about the benghazi attack. >> obama: for them to go after the u.n. ambassador, who had nothing to do with benghazi, and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received, and to besmirch her reputation is outrageous. when they go after the u.n. ambassador apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me. >> eliot: an hour after the president's comments mccain

and graham were on the senate floor doubling down on their call for investigation into rice's comments. >> this president and this administration has either been guilty of colossal incompetence or engageed in cover up, and if someone carried a message to the american people that was totally and utterly false with no basis in fact, then that person has to be held accountable as well. >> for more on the president's defense of susan rice as well recent escalation in the middle east is marc ginsberg. thank you for your insights into this. what is going on with this back and forth about susan rice? there has got to be a back story. >> sure there is. i don't want to present to be a psychologist when it comes to senators mccain and graham, but here's what is going on. these two gentlemen these two senators who i know and have

great respect for were deeply involved with libya from the get go. from the time of the gadhafi revolt. came very close to ambassador christopher stevens, they're taking out on susan rice--who doesn't deserve this from them. she's a perfectly fine, terrific individual. she was only doing what she was instructed to do by the director of white house communications who decides along with the national security adviser who is going to go out on all the sunday talk shows. this is what she was told. what is really behind this, this is my judgment--both senators mccain and lindsay graham are upset that the state department dropped the ball on ambassador stevens, who they were really fond up. >> eliot: in that case direct their venom to the correct

party. >> i couldn't agree more. >> eliot: it seems odd to turn this into a larger kerfuffle the president will win and distracting from the real issues we're facing now. >> have you ever heard the phrase don't shoot the the messenger. she was the messenger. if they want to go after son the communications director, the person who provided her that information. most importantly go after the senior officials in the state department who denied the repeated request for the security officer to provide the necessary protection to ambassador stevens which i suspect is behind the ire of the senators right now. they should come out and say that. i would urge them to rethink who their real targets should be. >> eliot: misdirected anger maybe because the republicans had cut the budget for security. i don't know. >> well, there is security here. there is always security where there is a threat. but we know from the testimony

before congress issa's sub committee that the officer in front of the very officials who denied him the security requests blamed the security department for denying the security that ambassador stevens wanted. i'm sure they are just as upset about it as i am. >> eliot: let's switch gears to where there is a continuing cycle and degradation of life in syria. you have spoken about this passionately. it's getting worse and worse. 400,000 refugees. it's going across the borders of turkey jordan, israel. what's happening now. >> there was an agreement reached by the syrian opposition to form this new national council led by a former islamist imam from syria. whether he can hold this together remains to be seen.

this is a legitment government. he needs arms. he needs no fly zones. unless he gets these. they have the means to pummel the people of syria. >> eliot: is now to step in to provide arms. >> i take the pronoun we and apply it to the turks on the one hand and the jordannens on the other. let them have the support that they need, whether from the united states or elsewhere, for them to do what is necessary to create those no fly zones. for the state department to stop acting from mrs. clinton or the u.s. government to stop acting and kicking and screaming and supporting the french. if the french want to do this as

the former colonial power the state department should stop them from doing so. >> eliot: why are we so passive. >> we're afraid we're going to be drawn into a conflict that will wind up undermining--if there is a doctrine in the middle east, it is the president's doctrine which is no more wars. >> eliot: isn't this a great threat that if this war explodes and crosses over and destabilized turkey, jordan, this is a cancer that is metastasizing. >> we have dropped the ball on syria for a year and a half. i've been complaining for a year and a half that this administration has failed to rectangle recognize the colossal enormity of in this for a year and a half. the fact that now they're getting the message and being more actively involved on a humanitarian basis and involving themselves in a serious matter to form a better coalition better late than never is my

answer. >> eliot: the strike to take out the hamas leader, is this related to syria? was this a long-planned strike. there has been escalation of firing from gaza. >> taking out the wing commander of hamas he has blood on his hands. there is an enormous amount of rockets, inappropriately illegally being fired by hamas into israel. israel has the right to retailate. they need to retaliate and they need to punish hamas until they stop firing indiscriminately into israel. >> eliot: is this going to be all right you got our guy. we're going to stop. game over. >> actually what i'm afraid of, this could escalate. but i don't think it will lead to a 2008 war. >> eliot: not a big encroachment. >> the israels have an election coming up and netanyahu could

very well be in danger electorally if he doesn't take a strong stand because there are so many people in israel who are being subjected to rocket attacks that the israels must respond. >> eliot: we have to leave it there. marc ginsberg, expert on all then how'd i get this... [ voice of dennis ] ...allstate safe driving bonus check? what is that? so weird, right? my agent, tom, said... [ voice of dennis ] ...only allstate sends you a bonus check for every six months you're accident-free... ...but i'm a woman. maybe it's a misprint. does it look like a misprint? ok. what i was trying... [ voice of dennis ] silence. ♪ ♪ ask an allstate agent about the safe driving bonus check. are you in good hands?

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>> eliot: still to come, wall street turned it's back on obama. will he finally turn his back on them? but first limbaugh knows who to blblame for the election. colbert looks ahead to 2016 and one guy is really hoping for a rubio/ryan ticket in the future. when it doesn't fit anywhere else, we put it in the viewfinder. >> we're all americans. let's unite. let's be as one. it's not a time to gloat--yeah!

ana coulter. this one is for you baby. >> election was lost because of your host, rush limbaugh. i am the primary reason--there are others, but i'm the primary reason, and i'm by the way the primary reason the republican party will keep losing. >> we now live in a dishonest culture. the media is corrupt. it has done things it could never have gotten away with even ten years ago. there are entire media that promote, and it will get worse. >> i brief with the predictable results of socialism that america will come calling for conservative answers. that's my prediction. >> we can finally take a breather. just relax with a nice soothing

cup of and just let it all-- >> do you think it's too early to talk about 2016? we don't think so. >> the g.o.p. candidates for 2016. some experts say a frontrunner has already emerged in the form of a shrinking rage. >> i hope that i see for a few mothermore years. i hear rubio and ryan are ryaning for 2016. >> is it too soon to speculate as to who spear might pick as running mate. >> i can't see them take anything. >> the billionaire fight. >> we just had it. it's called the election. >> yes. >> eliot: even newt gringrich can be funny sometimes. now that he's entered a second term. will president obama finally at long last clean up wall

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>> eliot: the themes of president obama's 2008 campaign were "hope and change." we were hoping thahat this president, he would change the culture of wall street. to a large extent we were disappointed. as bill cohan wrote this week, i quote, it turned out we were either naive or stupid to think that when candidate obama spoke about change you can believe in, he was including wall street.

here to discuss whether we're still being my we've or stupid to think things will be different is bill cohan former investment banker and author of "money and power: how goldman sachs came to rule the world"." >> eliot: are it change the world. >> eight of the largest donors to obama were wall street firms. they don't like it but he was incredibly kind to them. he bailed them out. he didn't prosecutor anyone. dodd frank is not the regulation that we hoped it would be. and the fed, which he has a responsibility for, has give them a gift of low interest rates and favors. if you sum that up, the four years has been incredible for wall street. the market has gone to 15,000. >> eliot: the factor and the issue that you raised that few

people focus on, interest rates. that is an enormous wealth transfer which means the middle class and seniors to financial institutions. >> the feds are saying for the next two years we're going to keep the from rates low and you can take it and get $1.00 on the dollar. >> eliot: you can borrow, buy t bills, make easy money. financial institutions play that game. savers who get zero in their checking accounts are losing. >> that's right. absolutely nothing. >> cenk: what are they upset about? >> you know what, i don't know. but this go around where they have romney who was literally one of their own the first wall street guy to be elected president fortunately, it didn't happen. but the top eight of his donors are all wall street twice. >> eliot: will he go to wall street for his wall street treasure secretary and who do you think he should pick. >> the time has come--i'm sorry obama was dominateed by bob

reuben and his cronies and who he wanted to put in, tim geithner summers, is shapiro. orzag even now you have the head of the national economic council someone that reuben, broman and jack lou who is now being talked about as replacement for geithner. sweep them all out. sweep them all out. bring in somebody in my opinion like irskn bowles, why? it's sylvester not to have someone who understand wall street for starters. and he does understand wall street. he has his own investment bank in south carolina. he sold it and then went left and ran the university of north carolina system. now he is of course the architect of the irskin bowles-simpson-- >> eliot: he understand it but

he's not of it. >> he understand it, he's not of it. it would send such a powerful signal to wall street. >> eliot: here is the most fundamental intellectual divide. folks at wall street that the financial sector was the economy. they thought what they did the intermediation moving money around created wealth. they were wrong. all they're supposed to do is take savings and lend it to people who create wealth. if you don't depreciate that, then you're going to be sucked into the same vortex of the mistakes they've made before. >> that's why you need someone like irskin bowles, but you have to allow wall street to take risks with their own money. with their own money. not our money. if they fail, let them fail. forget too big to fail. we'll recover. we'll be fine. >> eliot: what about paul

krugman. i knew a lot of people view him as a rabid academic. but when i read his stuff he has been write more than anybody else in terms of diagnosing the economic crisis over the last eight, ten years. >> the only problem i have with paul krugman. once, i don't think he understands wall street. it's hard to have someone in the secretary treasury job. you understand wall street. you would be a good candidate. i think he's long on how far out he is on canessan economics. at some point you have to start to reduce the deficits. >> eliot: i don't want to get in debate whether paul was right or wrong, but if you put him in as adviser which is more of an academic position. >> reinhardt, paul crew man and you. you at least understand where the bodies are buried. >> eliot: all i know how to do

is serve subpoenas and it's amazing what comes back when you get the data from wall street. do you think the president will do this or will we see a traditional name. >> i think it will be jack lou. >> eliot: 80% that he'll be chosen. >> that's typical bill cohan completely out of the mainstream but i think it would be an important message to sweep out the reubenites. >> eliot: a huge part of the population agrees with you. let's hope you're right. bill cohan, thank you for your time and insights. a decorateed chef and restaurant owner working to solve the hunger problem right here in new york city. the

>> eliot: john boehner may refuse to raise taxes on the rich, but others sound a bit more reasonable, including of all people the ceo of goldman sachs. that's head. but i'm i'm let's join jennifer

granholm for an up in-depth report on schools meals and more about benghazi and the petraeus scandal. that's >> eliot: goal man sax ceo lloyd blankfein has an important op-ed in today's wall street journal. perhaps making up for the fact that no traditional wall street banking ceos were invited to the ceo con fab at the white house today. he wanted to get his views on some important fiscal issues on the record. he does articulate a framework that permits a serious go goesation leaving a resume of over 1 trillion-dollar of cash sitting on the balance sheets of u.s. companies.

eliminateing uncertainty would be fine the much more important issue is a lack of demand for the products that the capital expenditures would produce. we have a demand crisis and not an uncertainty crisis. that point needs to be reiterated often. blankfein says i quote the believe the tax increases especially for the wealthiest are appropriate but only if they're joined by serious cuts in discretionary spending and entitlements broadening the personal income tax base by closing loopholes would generate substantial additional revenue while minimizing increases in marginal rates that could stifle risk-taking and robust growth. without parsing the pieces there that i disagree with, it is mourn to note that he says minimizing, number eliminating. or refusing to agree to. that's important distinction. what is lacking not

surprisingly is any detail. we all know the devil is in the details and this is where it gets gnarly. here is an offer. let's view this open-source negotiating as opposed to the closed source dialogue taking place in washington. with the expected revenue figure and then match in dollar and value with a spending cut. we will proceed until we have the 4 trillion-dollar in deficit reductions over ten years that is being south. we will see what a genuine detailed balanced deficit reduction package looks like. the details in all this are tough. let's give it a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a a >>and now to my point. that is a whole bunch of bunk! the powerful my steal an election but they cannot steal democracy.

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>> eliot: the fact is that in our land of plenty, far too many children still go hungry. all this week here at current tv we will be highlighting the nationwide problem of hunger, obesity and malnutrition in a series of segments called "currently: feeding the need." last year alone 16.6 million children nationwide face food insecurity meaning that they lacked food. joining me now is marc murphy who is on the food council of city harvest a charity who works to end hunger across the five boroughs, and battling childhood hunger in america. thank you for your time and what you do. give me a sense of the magnitude of the problem and how you through these two organizations try to confront it. >> it's amazing. you mention those numbers we're talking about america. instead it's a rich country, and

we have kids here who are going hungry. it's amazing. you know, what is great the work that i'm doing they raise funds and they try to help connect basically the government and private entities to try to, one raise awareness but also to connect with breakfast programs, lunch programs, a lot of kids in this country only eat at school. summertime comes and they're not a school. we need to get those kids connected with places they can go eat. >> eliot: an amazing statistic anyone who has been in city or state government, how many are on school lunch/breakfast programs. how many need to come to school to get fed. that tells you at home there isn't the food. that shocks many of us who are not aware of this initially. >> no, you think of other

countries with people being hungry but it's in our own backyard. >> eliot: we know during the school year kids can go to school and get a breakfast and lunch, but during the summer months when school is not operable, then someone needs to fill that void. >> what happens when you're hungry, when i'm hungry, these kids can't learn. they can't learn to play. they can't learn to do math. we have to invest in the future of our country. we have to feed our kids so they can be smart and keep going. right now from what i understand i've heard the statistic is 50% of kids who try to get into the military because of malnutrition they can't get in. it's become a national security issue. >> eliot: and malnutrition takes different forms. we talked about obesity and it's part of the bad eating habits. we just eat junk stuff. how do we educate parents and kids about that? >> this is a great thing. one of the things that they do is this program called "cooking matters" then they go to other

organizations "city harvest" which i'm on the board of. we implement this program that teaches parents and kids how to eat healthy how to stretch their dollars if they don't have enough money and to try to be able to feed the kids in the family at home. that's an important thing. it's about jading educating the parents and the kids how to eat properly. >> eliot: when you look at data like this, obesity andnal nutritionandmalnutrition and then when you go to the doctor when you're sick. mike bloomberg has done an amazing job focusing on the health issue. whether you agree or disagree on the soda size. has that gun to make a difference. >> there is the trans-fat, there are things that bloomberg has tried to begin.

people talk about taxing, and people are going to buy what they're going to buy that means there's less money for the carrots. if you go to the bodagos. you walk in those there is not food. >> a lot of chemicals and junk and fat. >> everything is in packaging. instead of doing--putting all these rules out let's give them incentives to stock those stores with vegetables and putting them at decent prices. >> eliot: when you were a kid did you eat junk food? >> i grew up in europe. we didn't have much junk food, but i love food. i like junk food every once in a while. you have to be careful. >> eliot: how did you do it, as a parent, i have three kids and they're grown now. how do you tell a ten-year-old when you have a twinkie and a pile of carrots how do you get them to eat carrots and not the

twinkies. >> you make the carrots taste really good. i go to people's houses and they're feeding their kids and they're steaming the broccoli, aren't they allowed flavor? steamed broccoli is what you eat when you're in the hospital with high blood pressure. put pepper and-- >> eliot: time is short. how do you make brussels sprouts sprouts, my mom never could and now i'm going to get grief. >> you could eat them raw, roast them they caramelize a little bit. a little bacon. that helps to bring a little flavor. >> eliot: make it taste good and kids will eat it. the world will be a better place place. chef marc murphy owner of benchmark restaurant. many thanks for your time. what you do helping us face one of the real issues of the country. kids and hunger. >> thanks for getting the word out. >> eliot: that's "viewpoint" for tonight. have a great evening. i'll